Re: Why the Kindle and other e-book readers are doomed

In article <MCe*IUAJs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Thomas Womack <twomack@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <JtydnY0uFLv_NKvXnZ2dnUVZ_gNi4p2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
PV <pv+usenet@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Mike Ash <mike@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
Case in point: before June 17 of this year, iPhone applications were
forbidden from providing turn-by-turn directions. This was purely a
legal restriction, made by Apple for reasons unknown. The hardware was

The original *stated* reason was that it would interfere with the iphone's
use as a phone - that turn-by-turn was too taxing on a machine that is
actually pretty slow (500mhz). It turns out, it's a licensing issue -
they'll allowing it now, but they require anyone making one to procure
rights to their own maps - google does not allow Google Maps to be used for
this purpose. *

I'm surprised they even tried to argue a technical reason; if any
functionality were covered by patents, that would be. Google gets its
maps from people who also sell them to Tomtom and its friends, so it's
unsurprising that their licence doesn't cover that usage, and they
have in the past tended to be very aggressive against people doing
things with their map data other than looking at it through their
interface.

I rather doubt they did try to argue a technical reason. Apple's typical
approach on iPhone stuff is not to give any reasoning at all. PV, do you
have any source for that? It sounds more like something that other
people would have come up with to justify the decision.

Open Streetmap doesn't have licence restrictions and is by now
probably good enough in cities with universities with a major
comp.sci. department.

More to the point, Apple's restriction wasn't on their own maps
application, but on *everybody else's* map application. Build an
application that used your own map data, completely in the clear
license-wise, and Apple still wouldn't let you sell it. It can't be
related to Apple's license for Google's map data unless that license
somehow prohibited them from allowing *anyone* to do turn-by-turn
directions on the entire device.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon
.

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